| JARHEAD |
 2005 - USADirector: Sam Mendes
- Reviewed by Vickie
Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and practically oozing testosterone from every frame, the movie finds eager young recruit “Swoff” quickly regretting enlisting in the military. But, between self-inflicted gastro-intestinal maladies and embarrassing initiation rituals, something changes. Blame Apocalypse Now, which runs for the soldiers on base as news of war in Iraq breaks and whips the men into a vein-popping, chest-thumping, decibel-breaking frenzy. Suddenly, Swoff and his fellow Marines are ready to kick asses and take names! Stationed in the middle of the desert, Swoff and the other guys—including Peter Sarsgaard as Troy and Jamie Foxx as Staff Sergeant Sykes—have a LOT of time on their hands. They’re officially at war, but not engaged in any kind of battle. The film essentially tracks the men as they bide their time, seek escape from their own boredom and confront the reality of being so far from home. Some succumb to the tedium, some fight it and some fall apart in dramatic, borderline over-the-top ways. Since there isn’t really any major action in this film, its dramatic impact hangs on the shoulders of its cast and their performances, which range from powerful to, as mentioned, a little much at times (Sarsgaard, I’m looking at you). The most impressive turn comes from Gyllenhaal, who’s kind of carved out a career playing more soft-spoken types. But in Anthony Swofford, he plays against type as a gun-toting, trigger-happy, tightly wound mess, who does things like threaten his bunkmates with death when he’s not running around drunk and naked, wearing only a Santa hat on his bits and pieces. He’s the class clown and the one most likely to snap at an inopportune moment at the same time. Yet, beneath the broken jokester is a wounded heart of a boy forced to become a man in a time of war. Mendes does a good job of conveying military-base life and punctuates the film with visually stunning sequences, though there are some scenes in the film that drag on a little longer than needed and the He-Man manly men being mannish became a bit much after a while. But even though it might not pack the emotional punch of something like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon, Jarhead will no doubt take its place alongside them on the war-movie shelf. |
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Jake Gyllenhaal tears up the screen and guns for an Oscar as Marine
sniper Anthony Swofford in this cinematic dramedy based on Swofford’s
book about his real-life experiences during the first Gulf War.
